Destiny's rare gear vendor is selling one of the best PvP guns this weekend

That's when Xur, Agent of the Nine, appears in a random part of the game's social spaces to peddle his rare weapons and armor. As long as you have enough Strange Coins, a rare currency that can be earned by completing Weekly Heroic Strikes (and from random loot drops), Xur has the goods for you.

Xur deals in Destiny's so-called "exotic" gear. In a game ruled by random loot drops from virtually any scenario, exotics are the most sought-after of them all. They're also the only class of gear in the game with usage restrictions; namely, you can only have one exotic armor piece and one exotic weapon equipped at any given moment.

Xur's in the Tower or the Vestian Outpost from 4 a.m. ET on Friday to 4 a.m. ET on Sunday. He's in the Tower's Vanguard chamber this week. Just run straight forward when you spawn in the Tower, head down the stairs, then down another set of stairs. He's against the wall on the right in the same chamber that houses all three of the Vanguard vendors.

Let's take a look at what he's got in stock for the weekend of June 26 to 28.

Peregrine Greaves (Titan leg armor)

Looky here, completionists. Xur's never sold these before. For everyone else, let's be real: there are plenty of better exotics than Peregrine Greaves. There are worse ones, too, but why waste your one exotic armor slot on boots that are just okay? You do get a boost to your heavy ammo total when you're wearing these, but the real star here is the Peregrine Strike upgrade. It increases the damage of the Striker subclass's Shoulder Charge attack, but only when it's activated in the air. Kinda weird. Probably more useful in PvP if you're one of those Striker maniacs that loves to throw a knee around every corner. But Shoulder Charge is also handy for taking out some of the larger PvE enemies, like Ogres.

Cost: 13 Strange Coins

Crest of Alpha Lupi (Hunter chestpiece)

The Crest of Alpha Lupi is very useful for any team-based PvE activity, thanks entirely to the "Keeper of the Pack" upgrade. In addition to significantly increasing the time it takes to revive a fallen teammate, it also spawns additional orbs of light for your teammates when a Super is activated. On top of that, you get boosted carry capacities for hand cannons and special weapons. The Hunter's Alpha Lupi chest armor is also very handy in PvP modes that allow teammate revives, particularly Trials of Osiris.

Cost: 13 Strange Coins

Heart of the Praxic Fire (Warlock chestpiece)

Heart of the Praxic Fire is a valuable exotic for team-based activities. The main upgrade, Praise the Sun, reduces ability cooldowns while the Sunsinger's Super ability, Radiance, is active. Ideally, you're using this chestpiece when you don't have to worry about taking advantage of the Sunsinger's unique ability to self-revive when the Super is charged. Praise the Sun is most useful when you're using Radiance as much as possible, since the boosted cooldowns let you blanket an area with grenades. Heart of the Praxic Fire also has additional upgrades that boost the ammo capacities for fusion rifles and any type of heavy weapon.

Cost: 13 Strange Coins

Red Death (pulse rifle)

Red Death is easily one of the best exotic weapons in the game. Before you even factor in any upgrades, the stats on this bad boy are great. Lightning fast reload, very rapid burst fire, high damage, decent range, dead-on accurate... it's a beast. Especially in PvP. Then you look at the upgrades, and Red Death's usefulness only grows. The one that it's named for triggers health recovery whenever you score a kill, which is useful in virtually every corner of Destiny. There's also Unflinching, which makes it easier to maintain a steady aim while you're taking fire. If you don't own Red Death yet, go get it.

Cost: 23 Strange Coins

Xur's also selling his usual exotic engram/exotic shard offerings. Engrams are unidentified gear that only the Cryptarch can decode. Xur's exotic engrams always cost 23 Motes of Light, and this week's item is a helmet engram.

Exotic Shards are used to unlock the final upgrade on exotic weapons and armor. With the release of House of Wolves, they're also used to "ascend" older exotic gear, bringing the stats — damage for weapons and Light level for armor — to the current maximum. They're always useful, and you can buy them for seven Strange Coins apiece.

In addition to the gear, Xur also peddles a rotating stock of consumables every week. For this week, he's got Fusion Rifle Telemetry, Machine Gun Telemetry and Rocket Launcher Telemetry (temporarily increases the XP gains on the designated weapon class) in bundles of five, for 1 Strange Coin apiece; a Plasma Drive that boosts the speed and durability of rare Sparrow and adds a blue contrail, for 23 Strange Coins; an Emerald Coil, which works the same as a Plasma Drive but gives the Sparrow a green contrail, for 23 Strange Coins; and bundles of five Heavy Ammo Synthesis (ammo packs, y'all), for 1 Strange Coin.

If you want to dive even deeper on the relative value of Xur's offering this week, head over to the Destiny subreddit. User aWrySharK (he's on Twitter now, too) is back this week with analysis of each armor offering's stat rolls. Join the discussion for this week right here.

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